Wise Names

Ah manga, a most popular style of comics that has taken the western world by storm. I am a big fan of manga, I've been reading it for quite a long while, and I probably know more about that universe than Marvel or DC. In recent years I stopped buying manga, mainly because I just can't keep up with all the new series that come out and a lot of them just don't appeal to me. It feels like the creativity is lacking, and we end up with new series that are just generic ghosts of older, better, manga. Just my opinion though, take it as you will.

I do rather like the art for Bleach, though, a great little manga turned anime that has a feature film coming out on June 11-12 in US theatres. Bleach the Movie and other anime and manga always offer up some fantastically odd/cool names of characters. Often with Japanese pop culture the name of a character means more than just words, a lot of names have traditional meanings that can tell the background or true character of a person. For example, Ichigo Kurosaki, from Bleach, means “First Guardian” or “He who protects.”

It is quite fun to come up with your own manga name. I did do that many years ago when I was in the peak of my anime obsession. I went with "Michiru Ko", which is taken from the popular manga, Sailor Moon. Michiru Ko basically translates to "mature child", which, now that I look at it, actually was kind of fitting. I was the most mature kid among my group of friends and knew how to take charge of a situation. I also provided the most logical answers, so, funny enough, that name actually suited me quite well.

I may be past my anime dork-phase for the most part but I still enjoy the memories quite a bit. Coming up with your own identity is very important in a kid's life, and if you have to do it via a creative anime or manga like Bleach or Sailor Moon, then so be it. As long as you don't get stuck in that dreamworld and learn to mature and move on, you'll probably end up a better person in the end.